Lesson 1: History in Rocks - This lesson reviews the formation of the Earth by having students answer a warm-up question. We will then look at the history in rocks, formation of fossils, fossils as evidence for evolution, and relative and radiometric dating, first by watching video clips, answering questions, and taking notes, and then through class discussions. Lastly, students will complete the lab “Determining a Rock’s Age," which will give them a hands-on opportunity to further comprehend the dating method and analyze the results.
Lesson 2: A Trip Through Geologic Time - This lesson introduces the Geologic Time Scale. Students recreate the geologic time scale in terms of a football field, which allows them to see the magnitude of the scale. They also create a pneumonic to help them remember the Periods and Eras in the time scale. As a class we identify important aspects of each of the four Eras and organize the information into a chart to serve as a study guide.
Lesson 3: The Origin of Life - This lesson introduces how life began, looking at both the concept of spontaneous generation and biogenesis. We look at the experiments of Francesco Redi and Louis Pasteur, while completing note outlines to guide understanding that these experiments disprove spontaneous generation, and lead to the theory of biogenesis. The concept of primordial soup is introduced and a demonstration is given to understand Miller and Urey’s experiment.
Lesson 4: Charles Darwin & Natural Selection - This lesson finishes the exploration of the origin of life on Earth by looking at prokaryotes, eukaryotes, and endosymbiosis. Charles Darwin and his theory of natural selection is then introduced through two video clips. Students individually answer questions about the first video and then analyze quotes from the second video in small groups. As a class we then create a chart that identifies what we know/learned about Darwin and natural selection and what we still want to learn more about.
Lesson 5: Exploring Natural Selection - This lesson is an inquiry activity where students use an interactive online lab to simulate evolution by natural selection. Students follow through the simulation and then make changes to the mutation rate and selection strength to see how the evolution of the species can vary.
Lesson 6: Evidence for Evolution
Lesson 7: Population Genetics and Evolution
Lesson 8: The Evolution of Species & Patterns of Evolution
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